THE number of austerity-hit key workers relying on universal credit has skyrocketed by an eye-watering 155 per cent since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the GMB warned today.

Between late 2019 and the end of last year, those relying on the increasingly miserly payments to make ends meet rose by a staggering 119,000, the general union said.

Its analysis of Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey data reveals that in the last quarter of 2019, just months before the first coronavirus lockdown was imposed in March 2020, 76,803 public-sector workers were claiming universal credit.